Families and Literacy
March 2014 Volume 8, Issue 2
Wisconsin State Reading Association www.wsra.org
Family Reading Fun The goal of the Families and Literacy Committee of the WSRA is to develop and carry out plans which convey to parents the value of involvement in reading activities with children.
Members: Amy Sippert – chair Nicole Cilley
In this issue the focus is on the Reading/Language Arts standards, a part of the Common Core State Standards. Listed below you will find Reading/Language Arts Standard #2 and what it looks like at a kindergarten, fourth grade, seventh grade and high school level. The standard is as follows: K - With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. 4 - Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text. 7 - Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text. 11-12 - Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. Notice that the expectation of each standard is work that students do in school every day. The skills are not isolated. Reading, retelling, summarizing and analyzing text is something that is done across subject areas. The best thing that parents can do is to continue to read with their children and talk about the stories. For more ideas of what you can do, see the Literacy Tips below.
Teresa Prus
Literacy Tips
B Whalen
For the young reader: Reading with children is still the best way to help prepare them to
Deb Stensen Mary Pohlman Jenny Seiler Nina Ruskey
meet the demands of the Common Core State Standards. When reading with young children, try to choose a story with a theme or message, such as The Little Red Hen. Read the book aloud to your child. Have the child retell the story in his or her own words using details from the story. Then ask your child questions like; What is the big idea or lesson in this story? Is there anything you could learn from this story? Of course this may take some practice. Modeling this for your child, by telling your thoughts, is a great place to start.
For the teen reader: How can you help your teenage child meet the Common Core
State Standards? Try starting a parent/child book club. You and your child can read the same novel. After reading, have your child tell what the story was about without including his or her opinion. You can assist or make corrections to the retelling as needed. Then discuss what lesson the author was trying to teach. Go back into the text to find parts in the story that support this.
Families and Literacy
March 2014 Volume 8, Issue 2
Wisconsin State Reading Association www.wsra.org
Meet the Authors Robert Munsch The goal of the Families and Literacy Committee of the WSRA is to develop and carry out plans which convey to parents the value of involvement in reading activities with children.
Born in Pittsburg, PA, Munsch came from a family of 9 children. He wrote poetry throughout elementary school but didn’t think much of it. He studied to be a priest and after 7 years, left that behind and began working in daycares. It was here that he began to tell stories. Munsch used the children as inspiration for his stories and they became the characters in his books. Munsch has overcome many personal issues to become Canada’s best selling author. Find out more interesting facts about Munsch and see all of his book titles at www.robertmunsch.com
Jeanne DuPrau DuPrau, author of the Books of Ember, has written 5 novels, 6 books of nonfiction and many essays. Her books City of Ember, People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood and The Diamond of Darkhold are about a city that is always dark because there is no sun, moon or any kind of natural light. The only light is from electricity. The problem is… the electricity is running out. The characters need to unravel the mystery of what lies beyond the lights of Ember. DuPrau currently lives in California with her puppy, Jockey. She loves to read and hopes you do too! Find out more about DuPrau and the Books of Ember at www.jeanneduprau.com To see the Common Core State Standards go to www.corestandards.org
Website Spotlight Looking for a great resource for everything reading? Try www.readingrockets.org/audience/parents Here you will find articles and research, sections on parent engagement and literacy apps and even a section for fun stuff like printables and e-cards. **Look for our June issue when we focus on more Language Arts CCSS.**